84%
Organic Traffic Growth
Jul 2024 — Jul 2025 · Organic traffic growth · Data from Ahrefs
What we set out to achieve
Grow organic search visibility for a B2B email outreach platform competing in one of the most crowded SaaS categories. The target: rank for high-commercial-intent keywords like “cold email software” and “email outreach tool,” push domain rating above 75, and increase organic traffic from 38K to 60K+ monthly visitors within 12 months.
Where the platform started
At DR 70 with 38K monthly organic visitors, the platform wasn't starting from zero. But the cold email space moves fast — Mailshake, Woodpecker, Reply.io, Lemlist, and Smartlead were all investing heavily in content and backlinks. Without continued link building, the platform risked losing ground to competitors who were outpacing its backlink velocity. The opportunity was to accelerate growth through targeted editorial placements and listicle positioning.
54 links in 12 months across editorial and listicle placements
We focused on the sales outreach and cold email ecosystem, targeting publications that decision-makers in sales and revenue operations actually read.
Editorial Link Insertions
We got the platform mentioned inside existing articles about cold email and B2B prospecting tools. These were pages where readers were already comparing outreach solutions, so the links brought in relevant traffic and built topical relevance at the same time.
Listicle Placements
We got the platform into "best cold email tools" and "best sales outreach software" roundups on DR 70+ sites. The email outreach space has Mailshake, Woodpecker, Reply.io — all with strong link profiles. Showing up next to them in these lists was the fastest way to build credibility with both editors and search engines.
Branded Homepage Links
We picked up branded backlinks from SaaS directories, marketing blogs, and sales enablement sites, all pointing to the homepage. These links tied the brand to the email outreach and cold email category in Google's eyes, and they're a big part of what pushed DR from 70 to 77.
Obstacles we overcame
Hyper-Competitive Cold Email SERP
Mailshake, Woodpecker, Reply.io, Lemlist, Smartlead — that's just the short list. The "best cold email tools" listicles were written years ago and the same players have been sitting in them ever since. Getting a newer tool added to those articles took months of sustained outreach across multiple publications.
Maintaining Momentum at High DR
At DR 70, a link from a DR 50 site does almost nothing. You need DR 80+ placements to move the needle at that level, and those are harder to get. We had to be much more selective about which sites we targeted, which meant longer timelines per placement but better results per link.
Key takeaways
Jul 2024 — Jul 2025 · Organic traffic growth · Data from Ahrefs
Listicle Placements Win in Crowded Markets
With 15+ direct competitors, the "best of" roundups are where buyers start their research. Getting into those listicles put the platform next to tools buyers already knew, which built trust faster than any other tactic we used.
High-DR Sites Still Benefit From Link Building
There's a common assumption that sites at DR 70+ don't need more links. Some of this platform's competitors stopped building. We didn't. That 7-point DR gain (70 to 77) and 84% traffic growth happened because the competition got complacent.
Steady Pace Beats Aggressive Bursts
4 to 5 links per month for a full year. Nothing aggressive, nothing erratic. The Ahrefs chart is a smooth upward line — no spikes, no drops. That kind of consistency is what Google rewards.